Tech

The original Tomb Raider of the PS1 runs rather well on GBA, the proof in video

A developer has successfully ported the first Tomb Raider to GameBoy Advance. He relied for this on the open-source project OpenLara. The whole game has not yet been adapted, but the demonstration runs very well on Nintendo’s portable console. The developer posted a video on YouTube that confirms this.

tomb raider portage gba

In the world of retrogaming, you have two trends. First there is that of emulation: running games from old consoles on new platforms. Last year we talked about the latest developments in the field with Spine, the first PS4 emulator to run commercial games, or even Yuzu and Ruyjinx, two very powerful Switch emulators. The other trend is the creation of new programs for old consoles.

Read also – Even the Nintendo Game Boy can mine Bitcoins, the video proof!

In 2021, we reported in our columns astonishing experiments in the field. Christopher Nolan’s Tenet movie, ported to GameBoy Advance. And more recently, we were amazed by this GameBoy that can stream Star Wars movie. She uses a special cartridge that allows her to access the Internet via WiFi. Today, we are reporting yet another amazing experiment: the porting of the very first tomb Raider, great classic of the PS1 released in 1996, on… the GameBoy Advance.

A developer adapts the first Tomb Raider on GameBoy Advance

The port was made by the developer called XProger. The latter is at the origin of the open-source project OpenLara, which is already based on several HD versions of the Tomb Raider, especially on web browsers. The developer has reused OpenLara to create this new version which runs perfectly well. Admittedly, the console does not reach 30 frames per second. But it still offers an experience to 15 frames per second enough to keep it playable. You can see it for yourself thanks to the video placed at the end of this article. at the end of this article.

XProgrer says it spent a year working on this port. This is a technical demonstration: not all levels of the game are present in the cartridge. He says he hopes to complete the game by adding the missing levels (only the first three are included in the demo), as well as the cutscenes. But for that, it will have to optimize the content sufficiently so that it can fit into a 32 MB cartridge, the GBA does not accept larger ROMs. This port also demonstrates that the consoles have never been used to their fullest.

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